SEPTEMBER 24, 2003

McNish looks to the future

Renault has bowed to pressure in France to aid the cause of a young French driver and so has announced that Franck Montagny will be taking over as its test driver next year, leaving McNish with no job. The Scotsman has been third driver this year for the team after racing for Toyota in 2002.

In recent days McNish has been talking to Jordan in the hope of landing a job with the team and is also expected to talk to Jaguar which may be able to benefit from his enormous experience as an F1 test driver. Although he only raced for one season, the 33-year old has been testing F1 cars since 1990, when he signed a three-year contract with McLaren. That was followed by another testing deal with Benetton with whom he continued to work until 1996. After a brief involvement with the disastrous Lola F1 effort, McNish moved to sports car racing and in 1998 won Le Mans for Porsche. He then moved to Toyota and his work as a development driver was rewarded with his chance to race in F1.